León y Gijón

It was one of my first weekends in Oviedo that I didn't have a trip planned. So what did I do? Planned a trip of course! I had heard a lot about León, so when my friend suggested we go for a day trip that Saturday (10/3) I decided to put exploring Oviedo further on hold and go to León. It is only about an hour and 45 minutes away on the bus from Oviedo, therefore easy to organise.

We wandered up to the Cathedral. The trick about this Cathedral is if you just want to have a glimpse inside you can if you enter on the left-hand side for free. Otherwise most tourists go in the right-hand side and end up having to pay for entrance. I don't think it is too expensive and you can get an audio-guide. We took the left-hand side option.

We kept wandering and came across the Saturday market. Mostly fresh fruit and vegetables. It was too hard to resist the delicious strawberries, so at the price of €2.49 a kilogram (4NZD) we got a good half-kilo to share.

After, we slipped into a restaurant and got a menu del día. It was absolutely delicious. I started with a goat cheese, walnut and apple salad. Followed this with trout covered in a mushroom sauce and then a cheese cake to finish. We also had a bottle of red wine to wash it all down. All this for €12.60, (20NZD).

Feeling absolutely stuffed we went in search for the Basilica. Some how we completely missed it and ended up outside a magnificent building that was a hotel and a church on the side. By this time the heat was coming on and we ended up sitting outside this building for a good half an hour to an hour soaking up the sun's rays. Heading back to the centre we found the real Basilica. As there are outside most churches in Spain, two dodgy, homeless looking men were seated. We hesitated on going in but did in the end and found out that this time we were in the real Basilica!  

Medusas

The next weekend on the Saturday (17/3) I went to Gijón to hang out with my tandem partner. The tandem programme at the University is a language exchange buddy. I am lucky to have a cool tandem and so we've become friends and hang out regularly. As she lives in Gijón, which is half an hour away, it was time I visited her city again. The weather was absolutely miserable. Typical Wellington winter weather, rain and wind at a force! Because of this we decided to visit the aquarium. I absolutely loved the aquarium. You start in a natural area with different types of lizards and turtles. You then move into the ocean. The logic is as you go through the aquarium you follow it as if you are going around the world visiting all the seas and oceans. Starting in Spain, going across to the Caribbean, round into the Pacific and so on. As the weather was so bad, it limited us on what we could do we ending up finishing up by having a milkshake in a café.




That night, Laura came over and we got into some baking and cooking brownie and pizza. Amazingly delicious!